Mauritania

Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country in northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the west, by Senegal on the southwest, by Mali on the east and southeast, by Algeria on the northeast, and by the Morocco-controlled Western Sahara on the northwest.

Independent
from France in 1960, Mauritania annexed the southern third of the
former Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara) in 1976 but relinquished it
after three years of raids by the Polisario guerrilla front seeking
independence for the territory. Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya seized power
in a coup in 1984 and ruled Mauritania with a heavy hand for more than
two decades. A series of presidential elections that he held were widely
seen as flawed. A bloodless coup in August 2005 deposed President Taya and ushered in a military council that oversaw a transition to
democratic rule. Independent candidate Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was
inaugurated in April 2007 as Mauritania's first freely and fairly
elected president. His term ended prematurely in August 2008 when a
military junta led by General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz deposed him and
installed a military council government. Aziz was subsequently elected
president in July 2009 and sworn in the following month. Aziz sustained
injuries from an accidental shooting by his own troops in October 2012
but has continued to maintain his authority. The country continues to
experience ethnic tensions among its black population
(Afro-Mauritanians) and white and black Moor (Arab-Berber) communities,
and confronts a terrorism threat by al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb
(AQIM).

Overview: Mauritania's economy is dominated by natural resources and agriculture.
Half the population still depends on agriculture and livestock for a
livelihood, even though many of the nomads and subsistence farmers were
forced into the cities by recurrent droughts in the 1970s and 1980s.
Mauritania's extensive mineral resources include iron ore, gold, copper,
gypsum, and phosphate rock and exploration is ongoing for uranium,
crude oil, and natural gas. Extractive commodities make up 75% of
Mauritania's total exports. The nation's coastal waters are among the
richest fishing areas in the world, and fishing accounts for 20% of
budget revenues, but overexploitation by foreigners threatens this key
source of revenue. Risks to Mauritania's economy include its recurring
exposure to droughts, dependence on foreign aid and investment, and
insecurity in neighboring Mali, as well as significant shortages of
infrastructure, institutional capacity, and human capital.

Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Senegal and Western Sahara

Area:

total:1,030,700 sq km (global rank: 29)

land:1,030,700 sq km

water:0 sq km

comparative: slightly larger than three times the size of New Mexico

Climate:

desert; constantly hot, dry, dusty

Land Use:

arable land:0.44%

permanent crops:0.01%

other:99.55%

Natural Resources:

iron ore, gypsum, copper, phosphate, diamonds, gold, oil, fish

Current Environmental Issues:

overgrazing, deforestation, and soil erosion aggravated by drought are
contributing to desertification; limited natural freshwater resources
away from the Senegal, which is the only perennial river; locust
infestation

human trafficking:Mauritania
is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and
children subjected to conditions of forced labor and sex trafficking;
adults and children from traditional slave castes are subjected to
slavery-related practices rooted in ancestral master-slave
relationships; Mauritanian boys called talibe are trafficked within the
country by religious teachers for forced begging; Mauritanian girls, as
well as girls from Mali, Senegal, The Gambia, and other West African
countries are forced into domestic servitude; Mauritanian women and
girls are forced into prostitution in the country or transported to
countries in the Middle East for the same purpose